Analysis of Opportunities and Challenges for R&D Management and the Role of the R&D Society for its Improvement – A Case Study in Iran

Research and Development (R&D) management in Iran is faced to many barriers and obstacles, in which R&D units are considered as the basic core of the product development and innovation. Due to structural shortcomings, a great number of organizations and industries have not been able to find their actual status. There are about different 1141 R&D units with a dispersion pattern in Iran. This paper considers and analyzes the R&D case study in one of the provinces located in the north part of Iran in order to enhance the potential R&D activities in respect with the industrialized areas and zones. In this province, there are about 2504 industrial units of which there are only 44 R&D units certified by the state government. However, there are limit numbers of these R&D units that are extensively active. This paper also addresses the current status in respect with the R&D activities to find out why there is a lack and depression of these activities in the industrial units. By considering the opportunity and challenges of these R&D units, there is a need to change these units to be active in order to quickly respond the market and demand requirements. Finally, a few alternative solutions and improvement plans are proposed, in which the Iranian R&D Society is responsible for supporting and succeeding these action plans towards the organization goals.R&D Management

Examining Asphaltene Solubility on Deposition in Model Porous Media

Asphaltenes are known to cause severe flow assurance problems in the near-wellbore region of oil reservoirs. Understanding the mechanism of asphaltene deposition in porous media is of great significance for the development of accurate numerical simulators and effective chemical remediation treatments. Here, we present a study of the dynamics of asphaltene deposition in porous media using microfluidic devices. A model oil containing 5 wt % dissolved asphaltenes was mixed with n-heptane, a known asphaltene precipitant, and flowed through a representative porous media microfluidic chip. Asphaltene deposition was recorded and analyzed as a function of solubility, which was directly correlated to particle size and Péclet number. In particular, pore-scale visualization and velocity profiles, as well as three stages of deposition, were identified and examined to determine the important convection−diffusion effects on deposition

Synthesis and characterization of nanocomposite NiFe2O4@SalenSi and its application in efficient removal of Ni(II) from aqueous solution

In this work, nano ferrite spinel NiFe2O4 was synthesized by sol-gel method and characterized by SEM, XRD, FT-IR, and VSM. In second step Schiff base made from salicylaldehyde and amino propyl triethoxy silane was used for modification of the synthesized nano ferrit. In the third step removal of Ni(II) was done using modified adsorbent and 95% efficiency was achieved. The removal rate was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. These studies showed that the Freundlich isotherm model was fitted well with adsorption data. Moreover, the pseudo-second order kinetic model was fitted very well with experimental data. The results demonstrated that NiFe2O4@SalenSi nanoadsorbent can be used for the removal and recovery of metal ions from wastewater over a number of cycles, indicating its suitability for the design of a continuous process.               KEY WORDS: Nano ferrite, Sol-gel method, Schiff base, Removal of Ni(II), Magnetic nanocomposite Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2018, 32(1), 77-88DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v32i1.

Intravenous valproate versus subcutaneous sumatriptan in acute migraine attack

Migraine is a common and incapacitating neurologic disorder manifesting with episodic moderate to a severe headache and other symptoms such as photophobia, phonophobia, nausea, and vomiting. Triptans and ergot compounds have been used as treatment options for an acute migraine headache for many years. Triptans are considered the first line of treatment in patients with moderate to a severe migraine. Although the triptans are commonly used at any time during a migraine attack; they are more efficacious when used in the early stages of a migraine. Intravenous valproic acid has been shown to be well tolerated, safe, and with rapid onset of action in patients with acute moderate to severe and even refractory migraine. Sodium valproate is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)�approved drug for prophylaxis of a migraine with and without aura. In this study, the main goal was to compare the effectiveness of sumatriptan versus valproate in an acute migraine. A randomized clinical trial including 37 patients with an acute migraine was considered to compare the effectiveness of sumatriptan versus valproate. The patients were divided into two groups. In first group, 6 mg subcutaneous of sumatriptan and in the second group 15 mg/Kg of valproate was administered. The outcomes including pain and drug adverse effects were compared across the groups. A total of 37 patients (7 male and 30 female) were evaluated in two groups. The difference between two groups regarding sex and age was not significant (P>0.05). The mean pain scores reduced from 8.3 to 4.7 and from 8.3 to 2.2 after one hour of treatment in sumatriptan and valproate groups, respectively. Response to treatment in valproate group was faster and more effective than sumatriptan group (P<0.05).The results indicated that valproate was more effective and with the faster response in patients with an acute migraine in comparison with sumatriptan without any recurrence and remarkable side effects. � 2015 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Synthesis and crystallographic characterization of new heterotrinuclear oxo-centered complex

New oxo-centered trinuclear mixed-metal complex, of [Fe2ZnO(CHCl2CO2)6(CHCl2CO2)3].NO3 was synthesized by the direct reaction between metal nitrates and dichloroacetic acid. These compounds have a typical μ3-oxo trinuclear structure: (a) three metal atoms are situated in the apexes of the equilateral triangle; (b) μ3-oxygen atom and six dichloroacetate ligands fulfil the bridge functions and (c) the monodentate CHCl2CO2 ligands complete the octahedral geometry of the metal ions. This complex were characterized by elemental analyses (CHN), atomic absorption spectroscopy and spectral (IR, electronic) studies. This is new types of oxo-bridged mixed-metal complex in which the carboxylate ligand is dichloroacetic acid. The UV spectra of the complex exhibited strong bands in the region 213 and 257 nm which are related to the (π → π*) and (n → π*) transitions of the CHCl2CO2 ligands, respectively. The IR spectra of this compound showed two strong stretching vibrations bands, indicating a bridging coordination mode of the carboxylic group by presence of νasym (M2M'O) vibrations of the ligand in the infrared spectra.               KEY WORDS: Oxo-centered, Trinuclear complexes, Carboxylic ligand, Crystallographic data, IR spectra Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2018, 32(3), 491-500.DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v32i3.

Machine-Part cell formation through visual decipherable clustering of Self Organizing Map

Machine-part cell formation is used in cellular manufacturing in order to process a large variety, quality, lower work in process levels, reducing manufacturing lead-time and customer response time while retaining flexibility for new products. This paper presents a new and novel approach for obtaining machine cells and part families. In the cellular manufacturing the fundamental problem is the formation of part families and machine cells. The present paper deals with the Self Organising Map (SOM) method an unsupervised learning algorithm in Artificial Intelligence, and has been used as a visually decipherable clustering tool of machine-part cell formation. The objective of the paper is to cluster the binary machine-part matrix through visually decipherable cluster of SOM color-coding and labelling via the SOM map nodes in such a way that the part families are processed in that machine cells. The Umatrix, component plane, principal component projection, scatter plot and histogram of SOM have been reported in the present work for the successful visualization of the machine-part cell formation. Computational result with the proposed algorithm on a set of group technology problems available in the literature is also presented. The proposed SOM approach produced solutions with a grouping efficacy that is at least as good as any results earlier reported in the literature and improved the grouping efficacy for 70% of the problems and found immensely useful to both industry practitioners and researchers.Comment: 18 pages,3 table, 4 figure

Microwave-promoted solvent free one-pot synthesis of triazolo[1,2-a] indazole-triones catalyzed by silica-supported La0.5Ca 0.5CrO3 nanoparticles as a new and reusable perovskite-type oxide

Microwave assisted solvent free synthesis of triazolo[1,2-a]indazole-1,3,8-triones through one-pot three-component reaction of dimedone, phenyl urazole and aromatic aldehydes is presented. The reaction process was catalyzed by La0.5Ca0.5CrO3 and silica-supported La0.5Ca0.5CrO3 nanoparticles as new perovskite-type catalysts. The nano catalyst was studied by XRD, SEM and IR characterization tools. Some advantages of the proposed approach include high yield, being eco-friendly, procedure convenience and reusability of the catalyst.               KEY WORDS: One-pot reaction, Triazolo[1,2-a]indazole trione, Perovskite oxide, Nano catalyst, Microwave, Solvent-free Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2018, 32(2), 239-248.DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v32i2.

Combined quay crane assignment and quay crane scheduling with crane inter-vessel movement and non-interference constraints

Integrated models of the quay crane assignment problem (QCAP) and the quay crane scheduling problem (QCSP) exist. However, they have shortcomings in that some do not allow movement of quay cranes between vessels, others do not take into account precedence relationships between tasks, and yet others do not avoid interference between quay cranes. Here, an integrated and comprehensive optimization model that combines the two distinct QCAP and QCSP problems which deals with the issues raised is put forward. The model is of the mixed-integer programming type with the objective being to minimize the difference between tardiness cost and earliness income based on finishing time and requested departure time for a vessel. Because of the extent of the model and the potential for even small problems to lead to large instances, exact methods can be prohibitive in computational time. For this reason an adapted genetic algorithm (GA) is implemented to cope with this computational burden. Experimental results obtained with branch-and-cut as implemented in CPLEX and GA for small to large-scale problem instances are presented. The paper also includes a review of the relevant literature